


In The Tunnel and What Happened After

by jalendavi_lady



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Ending, Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Draught of Living Death, Gen, Potions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-11-19
Updated: 2010-11-19
Packaged: 2017-10-13 06:50:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 7,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/134230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jalendavi_lady/pseuds/jalendavi_lady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things go differently on the way to the Shrieking Shack.</p><p>Spoilers for the book chapters contained in the Part 2 movie. If you only watch the movies, you will be spoiled for major revelations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ambush

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sleep, Harry (fanart, photo-edit collage with text)](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/1894) by Angel-In Side. 



> This is another fic that's been sitting on my hard drive since the months after the book release.
> 
> When I saw Angel-In-Side's fanart, linked above, I started thinking about just what situation Harry and Snape would have to be in for the line in the collage to be spoken by Snape: "Sleep, Harry, just sleep" according to the artist's note. I didn't keep the dialogue, but the opening chapter is what it directly inspired.

No. This couldn't be happening.

Harry struggled against the arm holding him, disarmed.

Hermione and Ron lay in the tunnel nearby, Stunned and helpless.

It had been a trap, all of it.

Snape hadn't been about to meet with Voldemort in the Shrieking Shack—he'd been lying in wait in the tunnel leading to it.

A vial was against Harry's lips in another moment. The smell alone was enough to make him struggle even harder.

Draught of Living Death.

He tried to keep from swallowing, but some of the potion made it in.

Seconds later he began to feel the effect and Snape pressed the new advantage, forcing more of it into his mouth.

It couldn't have been a minute later when he felt like he was back in the freezing pond, with the question of whether he would freeze or suffocate first heavy in his mind.

His life couldn't be ending this way...

The last thing he was aware of was Snape's arms around him, removing the slightest possibility of fighting back or getting away even if he had been physically capable enough for either.


	2. The Forest

The world was spinning, he was freezing, and it tasted like he was missing a tooth.

He retched weakly, almost choking.

"It appears that our special guest has finally decided to join the party." The words were level and almost as chilly as the air and dirt felt against Harry's face.

Voldemort.

There was no way to fight back. No way to even move enough to look at him, to see if Snape was standing in the place of honor at his master's side.

This was how it was all going to end, at last. His mother's sacrifice brought to nothing.

If Hermione and Ron were still lying in the tunnel, then no one knew that Nagini needed to die. Even if someone managed to kill Voldemort, he would just come back.

They had probably failed.

He thought he could feel the lump of the invisibility cloak in his pocket. For a second he wondered what it was doing there. He let his hand creep towards it until his fingertips touched the edge of it.

Small comfort, being in physical contact with something that had been his father's, and his father's father's.

He would be meeting them soon.

"Oh no, Mister Potter. No wand for you today."

Somewhere nearby Bellatrix Lestrange cackled.

He tried to stop shivering, to calm anything that might be interpreted as a sign of fear once he was gone. He had control of that little bit of what was happening to him.

"Goodbye, Harry Potter."

He tried to open his eyes, tried to look at his enemy, but all he saw was the flash of green through his eyelids.


	3. The Place Between

He was lying on his stomach and the world was full of light.

Something nearby was crying, whimpering.

Harry opened his eyes. There was a pile of clothing in front of him, the sort of half-Muggle half-wizard style he'd been wearing all year.

He dressed and stood.

The sound was coming from a small black and red thing that was lying on the ground, about the size of a four-year-old child and the same shape. It was pitiful and clearly in pain.

Harry took a step closer.

"Don't touch it, Sweetheart."

He stopped, stunned. "Mum?" He turned around.

Seconds later all he could see was red hair in his face as she hugged him.

"You've been brave, so very brave."

They were both crying.

It was that easy, dying by the Killing Curse was that easy. It had been over as quickly for them, and for Cedric, and for Dumbledore as it had been for him, and now it was over.

He suddenly wanted both of them with him very much, his family reunited at last. "Where's Dad?"

"Only one person could meet you here, Harry. We decided it was better if it was me. And Dumbledore chickened out of handling this himself."

"What do you mean? Why would he have been the one to come? What is this place? And what's that thing?"

She laughed with a heavy air of sadness, holding him away so she could cradle his face in one of her hands. "So many questions."

"Mum?"

"You have a choice, Harry. When Voldemort resurrected himself, he bound your life to his. You can go back. The Curse magically reset the effects of those potions, and the antidote will cancel the draught out somewhat."

"Mum, no..."

"There's a chance, if you go back."

"And if I don't?"

Her eyes were sad. "Wizarding Civil War on the scale the British Isles have never seen before."

"We lose?"

"There is no way to call a war like that winning."

It wasn't fair!

She hugged him, tight. "We have this little time, at least, and there is a lot I have to tell you."

He nodded.

"This had to happen, Harry. You had to come here." He could hear the distress in her voice. "There was nothing anyone could have done to keep you from here."

A flash of anger at Snape welled up inside him.

"This wasn't Severus's choice, other than method."

He shook his head. "No."

"Harry, did you see that thing over there?" Her voice was firm. "Do you remember what your friend told you from a book this year? About fragile souls?"

Voldemort. One or more of the fragments, lying there. Which horcrux or horcruxes had yielded that...?

"It arrived here when you did."

He was repulsed before he even really understood what she was saying.

She held him tighter.

"No..."

"Albus thought you'd started to figure it out yourself. He even had a plan to let you know, but it wasn't carried out."

"Because Snape killed him."

"You saw his arm, Sweetheart." She ran a hand over his back, offering whatever comfort she could to him. "He was already dying. Only a few weeks left, even with what care anyone in the world could have given him. He knew a student had been ordered to kill him, and he didn't want that to happen."

Harry shook his head against her shoulder. "No."

"Harry, you know what it's like. A moment of fear and nothing. Almost the easiest end possible."

"Mum..."

"He asked Severus to do it, and to be the one to explain to you what had happened." He felt her run her fingers through his hair. "But he couldn't."

Coward.

She held him away again, and he could see that the world wasn't blank whiteness anymore. It looked like part of the Hogwarts grounds, with a bench nearby. They walked over to it together and sat.

"Harry, please understand what he was supposed to do. He was told to tell you that you had to die at Voldemort's hand and then do what he could to help you let it happen. Severus couldn't ask you to do that, not when things went from talking to doing and Albus wasn't the one making decisions anymore."

"If I don't go back... what happens?"

She shook her head and held him close again. "So little is set. War. Severus may try for Voldemort as soon as he thinks he has an opening, and there's little chance either would survive the encounter. Severus doesn't know about Nagini; he doesn't know how long he must stay his hand to win the war. The Death Eaters know how to look for their master after he falls, now, and they have powers they have hardly dreamed of. What will happen cannot be known."

"I wish I could stay." His voice was breaking and he tried to ignore the wetness on his cheeks. "But... I..."

She stroked his hair and kept doing so. "And so you are my son."

They wept together for a moment.

"Promise me something, Sweetheart."

"Mum?"

"No more Unforgiveables. No matter what the reason, no matter what the price. Don't do the things you've done today ever again. They're Dark, all three of them. There are other ways to fight and survive."

He nodded, still crying and unable to stop. "I promise."

"And no using that dreadful spell of Severus' again. Ever."

He nodded. He had never wanted to, after he knew what it did.

"You'll have a while when you wake up before those potions affect you again. Play dead. You can trust Severus. You will need to trust Severus. Can you have a truce until after the battle is over, just that long?"

"Until I can get more information on what's been going on."

"At least try, Sweetheart."

He nodded. "Until the battle is over. After that..."

"Is completely between you and Sev."

'Sev'? A nickname, for the man who'd led to her death, her husband's death, and...

"Harry, he didn't mean for it to happen. And we were friends once, if you can bring yourself to believe it. If he and James hadn't been at each other's throats for seven straight years, Sev would have practically been your uncle. He was certainly the closest thing to a brother I ever had, even given everything. Sirius tried to keep you happy, Severus tried to keep you safe—and he's paid prices for doing so."

"But..."

"The Occulumency lessons were never going to work, Harry. Albus was waiting to see if they would. He expected them to fail." She hugged him close. "We don't have much time left." She kissed his forehead, stroked his hair. "My brave boy."

"Mum," he sobbed.


	4. The Lie

He was lying on the ground, and it felt like he had approached a hippogriff from behind and been kicked.

"My lord..." Bellatrix' voice.

"I do not require assistance." There was a noise of robes gently rustling, and Harry knew Voldemort had fallen to the ground.

There was weeping nearby that sounded like Hagrid. Had he been here, under a Silencing Charm, when it had happened?

"Someone, tell me that he is dead!"

A step forward without the swish of Death Eaters' robes. "Allow me, my lord."

Snape.

There was a cold hand at his throat, and it was only his mother's assurances that kept him still as the headmaster felt for his pulse. A hand loosely over his face, pretending to feel for the breathing that Snape knew perfectly well was going on.

The feel of a thumb resting ever so slightly on his eyelid, and Harry knew it was a warning that he'd better be able to explain himself, quick.

Pressure in a particular way, and the eyelid raised. Snape's face was only a few inches away. Harry thought he might be seeing worry in his eyes, but it didn't reach the rest of his face.

Going to trust you. He's out of me, but he's not mortal! My hand's on the cloak. I can stay still for now,but the potions...

Snape removed the pressure and the eyelid dropped again. Harry felt him stay close for as long as it took him to blink twice and close his eyes again.

"He is dead, my lord."

Which was exactly what Voldemort had asked to be told, after all.

Snape had just saved Harry's life, when it gained him nothing to do so.

Bright lights and loud noises, a spontaneous party in honor of the 'victory'.

It lasted a minute, maybe three, before the cold voice called a halt. Harry barely had time to think before Hagrid had been Imperiused into carrying him. The entire group—Voldemort, followers, 'victim', and captive half-giant—began moving somewhere.

Harry couldn't tell where they were or where they were going. All he could do was trust that Snape would try to get him away before he couldn't keep from shaking any longer.

The air was warmer now than it had been before they had gone into the tunnel under the Whomping Willow. Hagrid radiated heat as well. Maybe the chill from the potions wouldn't be so bad this time when it did hit.


	5. The Castle

They stopped.

"Put him at my feet, where he belongs!"

A moment later, he was lying in the grass, cold dew seeping through his clothing.

He thought he could see light through his eyelids. The castle, perhaps: the ideal place for Voldemort to gloat.

That was exactly where they were.

Voldemort made his voice carry the way it had the previous evening, declaring his success.

"NO!" That was Professor McGonagall, and it took a moment for Harry to place the voice as hers because he had never heard that much grief in it before.

He kept still. He had to keep still.

"HARRY!" Hermione and Ginny screamed at almost the same time, so that it was hard to tell their voices apart.

McGonagall was now letting out a steady stream of expletives directed at Snape.

"No..." Ron's voice, and it sounded like he had no emotional capacity left in him.

Ron and Hermione were both there, well enough to speak. There was hope, someone else might have been told about the last horcrux, they might win this battle after all...

"Silencio!"

Voldemort's Silencing Charm failed.

But Voldemort had the Elder Wand! How could it fail? A Silencing Charm, of all things!

It wasn't his. Harry chilled at the thought. The Elder Wand was someone else's.

Off in the distance, McGonagall paused for breath.

Footsteps charging forward on the grass. The sound of someone falling.

"And who dares be so bold?" Voldemort's voice was as icy as Harry felt. He was going to be unable to keep from visibly shivering soon.

"Longbottom, my lord. Gryffindor, seventh year." It sounded as though Snape were reading off a class roster.

"The son of the aurors!" Bellatrix cackled.

"And one of the worst troublemakers this year as well, my lord. And during the battle last spring. And at the Ministry. Shall I go on, my lord?"

"There is no need, Severus."

"You are a pureblood, if memory serves?"

"I am." Neville's voice was firm. He'd come a long way since first year.

"Such strength and potential, so misdirected. But you are young. Even now, such errors may be forgiven."

Harry let his eyes slit open slightly. No one would notice the difference in this light. His head was facing the wrong way to see Neville, but he was fairly sure Snape was shifting his weight ever so slightly from foot to foot.

He tried to focus on that motion, to ignore everything else, to not react to what was happening to Neville, to disregard the cold that seemed to be seeping even into his soul.

The sound of a sword in air, through flesh. A scream of outrage in Voldemort's voice.

And all hell breaking loose.

No one would be looking at him now. He pulled the cloak out and wrapped it around himself as well as he could.

Snape was kneeling beside him a moment later, his face nearly touching the ground. "On me," he ordered.

A moment later, Snape was charging across the battlefield, Harry clinging to his back and trying to not choke him.

Hagrid's shout of "Where's Harry?" seemed so far away...

"From your weight, am I to presume your hiding place was nowhere near Molly's kitchen?"

He finally started shivering violently. "Please don't talk about food." His voice was weaker than he had thought it would be. "What did Neville do?"

"He beheaded Nagini."

"Then Voldemort's mortal again."

A heartbeat's pause. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"I'd swear by anything."

"Do you want to be the one to tell the world?"

"How?" He was lucky he could speak loud enough for Snape to hear him right now.

"Magical amplification, you nitwit." The insult sounded oddly affectionate. Snape slowed and a few seconds later a wand was poking at Harry's throat. "Now would be good."

"Voldemort's mortal! Kill him now, and it's for keeps!"

Snape removed the wand and sped back up, weaving between fighters as it sought the castle.

Voldemort screamed in outrage.

The defenders cheered.

They were suddenly traveling in the middle of a clump of Slytherin students bordered by about half a dozen masked Death Eaters, constantly casting Shield Charms and such around the group.

"Good hunting tonight, Snape?" one of the Death Eaters called out as they all ran for the castle.

"I only got an underweight Gryffindor and freedom, Nott. You do any better?"

"Just freedom for two, here."


	6. The Short Version

They were nearly there now, and Snape checked the cloak for a moment to be sure Harry's head was visible.

Harry thought he could see McGonagall and Slughorn silhouetted in the broken wall of the Great Hall. A few seconds later, the clump of running humans was inside.

Most of the uninjured defenders had gone outside. The bodies of the dead were lined up down the center of the room and the injured had sought shelter on the staff dais.

There was a great cracking noise, the sound of many Death Eater masks being magically snapped in two.

"Special delivery for Gryffindor House, Minerva!"

"Severus... Harry... What the bloody hell is going on?" Her hair was still down, and there was dirt and blood on her face.

"Long or short version?"

"Short!"

"Albus knew Draco had been ordered to kill him. That arm was going to kill him before Leaving Feast, and he was lucky, extremely lucky, it didn't kill him before the Sorting. He didn't want a student to be a murderer, and surviving a few extra weeks wasn't worth the price. Minerva, he asked me to do it quick, even before Fall Term began."

"And what happened to Harry tonight?"

"Doesn't fit in the short version."

The sound of mayhem outside went on.

"Severus..." Slughorn warned, wand rising.

"I understand why," Harry spoke. If anything, his voice was weaker than before and the words came harder. "It was all tied up in making sure Voldemort was mortal right now, same as the search for the object I was looking for in the castle tonight. I understand that, and it was necessary, and that's what matters."

The ex-Death Eaters had taken to yelling insults and casting curses from behind the remaining shards of broken windows. A few of the Slytherin students had joined them, and Harry realized that in some cases they had grouped into families around certain hiding spots.

The wands pointing at Snape all lowered.

"Potter has had Draught of Living Death and not nearly enough antidote." He knelt beside the wall. "Can you let go?"

Harry tried. "My arms don't want to." He was trembling even harder now.

Slughorn came towards them. "Based on what Granger told us about what happened, I grabbed some of the antidote from the store room during a lull in the attacks."

It tasted horrible.

"Just let go when you can, Potter."

It took a minute or two for him to do so. He was still trembling.

"Minerva, Potter's not going to be able to defend himself for a while. Where can we put him out of sight that isn't already wrecked?"

"I think the hallway down to the dock is still secure. There were no attacks on that side of the castle." McGonagall helped him out of the cloak, wrapped a blanket around him, and gave him a quick hug. Harry tried to reciprocate, but he was still too weak to do much.

"He can't get there himself."

"Horace and the others are all fighting, and we can't spare Poppy."

"No need to spare Poppy. He'll be fine once that antidote works and he's had some rest. We just have to keep him safe enough for that to happen."

"We can't get Slughorn back in here without making things obvious. Severus, even though you are headmaster, I think you need to be the one to do this. I don't have experience with what recovery from that potion is supposed to look like. Harry, is this..."

"It's fine with me."

"Then let's move. Can you hold on again?"

Harry did so.

"Theodore? Mind being backup?"

"Of course not, Professor." The younger Nott walked over and his father followed a few steps behind.

"If Theo's going with you, I'm going too."

"And I will be glad of it. Let's move."


	7. The Truce

A few minutes later, they were in the stairway. "I'm not sure I want to know how many decades it's been since I was here last."

"At least you're not as old as the stones. Yet."

"Snape, watch it. You're no youngster yourself anymore."

"There should be a landing a bit further down, just after a turn in the stairs. Good defensible position."

"I think I remember that spot." Theodore went ahead and checked it out. "It's clear."

The noise from the top of the stairs was growing louder. "Is the door going to hold?" Harry whispered.

"When the headmaster of Hogwarts seals a door inside the castle, it tends to stay sealed, Potter."

"Besides the fact he didn't muffle it," the elder Nott joked. "If he had, it would have been simpler to hang a big 'Snape Was Here' sign on it."

"Why?"

"Because back when Severus here was sixteen and stupid..."

"Oi!"

"...he was a little braggart who really wanted his ego stroked. Every Death Eater from the first war knows what that buzzing sound on a door means. Quite the Slytherin, letting everyone he might need to hide things from know what him hiding things sounded like."

Theodore chuckled.

"Oi!"

Snape helped Harry sit down on the landing, leaning against the the wall. Theodore went to check further down and his father stood by the turn in the stairs.

"You were sixteen?" Harry whispered.

Snape nodded. "It happened a lot. The Dark Lord likes to get to teenagers before their parents give them the adulthood talk at seventeen. Say just what they want to hear, promise the moon and the stars, and get someone who can't sign an employment contract sell himself into lifelong slavery and offer thanks for the chance." He paused. "I think all of us who just left were Marked before we were adults. I know Nott was Marked almost as soon as the Dark Lord invented the spell."

'Our age.' He'd been saying it all year. But this... "That's sick."

"That is life." Snape leaned back, chest still heaving slightly from the exertion of the near-constant flight. "And now I have a question for you. I want the truth. The first words in your mind when I looked in your mind were 'Going to trust you'. Why after last night and last year would you trust me?"

"When he hit me with that curse, I made it halfway. I had the choice to come back or not." He felt tears running down his face again. There was a limit to what he wanted to reveal. "Someone met me there, from the other side, and explained what happened to me and why, and what happened to Professor Dumbledore. I got spoken to about some of the things that happened yesterday, and what I did to Draco last year. And..." He choked.

"And what?" Snape's voice was soft and even.

"I promised I'd be willing to have a truce with you until the end of the battle, and after that would be between us to decide."

"And?"

"Not sure yet." He couldn't stop the tears. "Let me think once this is all over."

"I think all of us have some thinking and talking to do once this is over." Snape held up his wand, flicked it a certain way, and handed Harry the resultant handkerchief. "I read you wrong, when you were Sorted. I sensed a thousand horrible things, and wondered how everyone who wasn't a Legilimens missed it." Snape looked away, up the stairs, then looked back. "There is the issue, however, of the continuous stream of lies and half-truths you have given me since you were a first-year, along with what happened to young Mister Malfoy last year. And the things you did today. Breaking into Gringotts was one thing, but you Cruciated when Stunning would have served."

"Not going to again. I promised I wouldn't use any of those spells again."

"And you intend to keep this promise?"

Harry nodded.

"And promises you make to the living? All of the living?"

"I'm sorry."

"Severus, you can grill him after he can stand without falling," Nott called softly from his place higher on the stairs. "You're covering up the sound."


	8. The Standoff

There was a scream from somewhere that sounded like Mrs. Weasley, and a moment later someone yelled, "Where did he go!?"

Nott stepped backwards. "I heard the door open," he whispered. "Time to move, quietly."

Snape whispered, "You mind taking him? I don't think my back can take that again."

"Sure." Harry felt himself being hauled up to his feet and they started moving down the stairs as fast as they could go.

They had almost made it to the bottom of the stairs when Harry realized Snape had fallen behind. "No," he whispered. "We left him."

"There were plenty of places to hide in the walls, just not large enough for more than one. He's been running all night, and he knows how to hide. You're the one the Dark Lord will want to avenge himself upon most of all. Do you think you can aim straight now?"

"Yes."

The ex-Death Eater pressed a wand into his hand. It didn't feel all that foreign. Not familiar, perhaps, but better than even the wand from Draco had. "New spare, never been broken in. Just in case."

That odd feeling from at the Lovegood's washed over him.

"We've been had, keep moving."

"What about Professor Snape?"

"Just keep moving. He wouldn't want you going back for him."

There was a yelp that echoed through the tunnel they were just leaving, out onto the dock. "No." Harry turned to look back into the doorway, just stable enough on his feet to try to take a step towards it.

"It's not worth it, Potter." Theodore's face was blanched white, but he was still trying to pull Harry away from the opening. "We can make it out of range on the water."

"And then Voldemort gets loose?" Both Slytherins flinched back at the name. "No." Harry wrenched himself loose and stumbled up the stairs, borrowed wand in hand. "Watch the door."

There was a scream that split the air a few seconds later, echoing from even higher up the stairway. It didn't sound like Snape had made it far at all in the retreat.

It was like someone being Cruciated, only much much worse.

Harry put the cloak back on, almost as an afterthought. The element of surprise was something he was going to need.

Snape was lying on the stone, screaming and thrashing with his hands drifting towards his stomach.

He knew Voldemort was still here, casting the curse. He had to still be here.

With that, the Disillusionment Charm broke, because Harry knew what was there to be seen.

Voldemort was standing over Snape, his robes torn in places and his wand outstretched.

Harry whispered "Periculum" and shot red sparks over Voldemort's head. Maybe someone in the castle itself would see the sparks coming out of the doorway and bring reinforcements.

He looked Harry's way, wand raised. "Enclosed space, Potter." His voice was barely restrained. "I don't have to be able to see you to hit you. I just have to listen for the thump to know that I've killed you." He sneered in the faint light from enchanted lights in the walls. "And congratulations. Instead of dying thinking he might have bought you time to escape, Severus now gets to die knowing that he has utterly failed to save you."

Harry could see Snape's wand lying on the ground, beyond either of their reaches.

"Harry, run," Snape gasped.

"Oh no, Severus. That won't work. I'm listening for him now. One step, one sniffle, one slight rumble from too little dinner, and I'll know where he is. He's already as much as told me where to find him. He was not planning on keeping still when he cast that spell; he has not set his feet in place for it, and he is still weak from your potions. I do not think I will have long to wait. And if I do not kill him on the first try, there can always be a second and a third."

"No." Snape tried to reach for his wand.

Voldemort cast something at Snape nonverbally. He screamed, twitched horribly, and collapsed limp on the stone, moaning weakly.

The Elder Wand was in Voldemort's hand. The Elder Wand wasn't his, though. Whose was it?

Dumbledore had been Disarmed. And the one who had Disarmed him had also lost a wand...

Harry thought he understood. Even if it was wrong, it was the only shot he had.

"Oi! Expelliarmus!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

The spells intersected in air, and Voldemort was blown backwards in a flash of green.


	9. Chapter 9

Harry kept his borrowed wand trained on the still body as he picked up the Elder Wand and Snape's, gently placing Snape's in his outstretched hand. He cast "Hominum Revelio" with the Elder Wand, sensing the crowd above, Snape beside him, and the Notts down the tunnel. He lowered the two wands. "We won, Professor," he murmured, almost not daring to believe. "He's dead." He took the cloak off; there was no need for it now.

Sweat glittered on Snape's forehead. "Ripped me inside... before..." he gasped. His eyes sought Harry's. "Need... help..."

The Notts came charging up the stairway, halting when they came upon them. "Someone needs to go get Madam Pomfrey. He's hurt inside."

"Theo, go!" the elder Nott ordered. He ran.

Mr. Nott stood, wand trained on his former master's body.

"He's dead. His own curse killed him." Harry knelt beside Snape. "Someone's going to get help." He reached for his wand hand and cradled it as it clutched the wand. "Just hold on."

"Harry?"

It took a few seconds for it to finally sink in that the other wizard was using his given name. "I'm here. I'm not hurt. He can never hurt you again. He can never hurt anyone else again. Help's coming."

"Harry?" Snape's eyes were fluttering.

The battle was over. Everything was his decision now, and Snape's.

Harry eased down on the stone next to him. "I'm here, Professor. Just hold on. Help's coming."

"Potter, I'm going to go ahead and take the rubbish up to the castle. Pomfrey's going to need the space."

He nodded.

When Nott was gone, Snape whispered, "Sorry." His head lolled over, bumping into Harry's shoulder.

"Save your strength. You can apologize in the Hospital Wing once Madam Pomfrey gets you put back together."

"No... need to..."

"Professor, it's okay. It can wait. I know."

He shook his head weakly. "Need to say... sorry."

He wiped off Snape's face with the conjured handkerchief.

He blinked. "Harry?"

"I'm still right here." He could hear footsteps coming down the stairs now.

"Don't let... St. Mungo's."

"You don't want to be taken to St. Mungo's?"

"Don't let them..." Neville and Madam Pomfrey came down then. "Please..."

"Please what?" Neville asked as Madam Pomfrey started working on the headmaster.

"He doesn't want to be taken to St. Mungo's."

Madam Pomfrey didn't look up. "What happened?"

"He said Voldemort hurt him inside, then tortured him. The screams sounded like he was Cruciated, multiple times."

"Would you two check for blood either on his head or on the ground?"

Harry couldn't see anything, but he couldn't move far enough to really look. He was getting tired and recognized the adrenaline was finally leaving him behind.

"I think I see something. Lumos." Neville peered at the stone, touched Snape's hair. "He's bleeding."

"Then he's probably got a concussion to go with however the spells disoriented him. Or a cracked skull and a concussion."

"Poppy? Neville?"

"We're right here, Severus." She continued to work on him. "I think you've probably got a concussion. Just let me finish putting you together enough that you aren't bleeding inside, and I'll have a look."

He closed his eyes and moaned. "Please..."

"Neville, mind sticking a lit wand in his face and telling me if his pupils react?"

Neville did so. "No, and they're different sizes."

"What?" She cast one or two more charms, then moved to his head and performed the same check. "Damn." She put the tip of her wand against the side of Snape's head. "Harry, keep holding him like that. Neville, go get Horace. Severus, I don't think you have to worry about St. Mungo's, at least not the magical addlement ward."

Neville ran up the stairs.

"Harry, keep him calm and quiet if you can." She started reciting something very softly.

She had just finished and lowered her wand when Slughorn puffed into view, followed by Neville and carrying a bag.

Snape stirred a little and his eyes fluttered open. "Poppy? Horace?" He sounded a bit more coherent now.

"Severus, you had a head injury. I healed the damage, but it's going to take some time for you to recover from it and the physical damage. Lie still; we'll have to get you out by stretcher."

"War's over?"

McGonagall rounded the corner. "War's over."

"Horace, I think he probably needs a Blood Replenishment potion before we try to move him. And pain potions."

"Please, pain potions," Snape mumbled.

Professor Slughorn rummaged in his bag.

Snape suddenly seemed very aware. "Potter?"

"I'm here, Professor."

"What are you doing?" His voice sounded more bemused than offended.

"You kept either asking for me or asking if I was me; I'm not sure which. When I moved close like this, you stopped asking every half minute."

He closed his eyes again. "Needed to be sure you were alive."

Harry backed away and Slughorn gave Snape the potions.

Five minutes later, three of the ex-Death Eaters came down and helped get him onto a stretcher.

"Minerva?"

She leaned close over Snape. "What is it?"

"I'm not going to be in condition to make decisions for a while..."

"Which is why Hogwarts has always had a deputy. Worry about rebuilding yourself; I'll take care of the school."

Snape nodded weakly. The three men and Madam Pomfrey carried him up the stairs toward the exit.

Slughorn and McGonagall helped Harry get to his feet.


	10. The Hospital Wing

He was lying on his side surrounded by something soft and was warm even with cool air on his face.

"Harry, do you want to wake up now?"

"Hm?" He blinked. "Mrs. Weasley?"

She pulled the blanket more securely over his shoulder and smiled weakly at him. "You've been asleep for days. Horace and Severus said it might take a while, but..."

"I'm sorry I made you worry," he mumbled, still not quite able to get his eyes open and keep them that way.

"Harry..." He felt her squeeze his shoulder. "Those potions... Well, you're still going to need a lot of rest even now that you're awake. I'm just glad we didn't lose you too."

He reached up and touched her hand with his. "Anyone besides..."

"Just Fred," she choked out. "Almost Ginny." His hand clutched at hers and she patted it with her other hand. "Shh. She wasn't hurt. Just a very very close call. And if Tonks hadn't gotten to Remus when she did... well, Andromeda's already given them a speech about the risks they took."

He opened his eyes again. He didn't recognize where he was. "Where...?"

"Special section of the hospital wing. It's usually reserved for the staff, but you need the quiet too."

"Besides, the more security until you can fight for yourself, the better," a familiar voice from the other side of a cloth screen told him.

"Professor?"

A grunt.

"Severus,  no one would dare."

"We've already had this discussion, Molly. And he's been on the run for how long? Mostly alone?"

She seemed uneasy.

"There are some things I need to think about," Harry mumbled. "I'd almost rather be isolated until I've had a chance to figure things out."

"That's not all you need." He felt her hand circle his wrist. "Hungry yet?"

His stomach growled.

"I don't know why he'd be hungry, Molly."

"Severus!"

"He's only spent nine months in the wild scrounging. He's only what, fifty pounds underweight for his height right now? And all he's done since the last time he ate is sleep for a week, survive an unsurvivable curse, and win a war most of us thought would never end in our lifetimes. So I don't see why..."

Harry started laughing.

"... he can't wait the ten minutes it would take you to go down to the kitchens and get him something rather than just ask him if he's hungry."

She answered Snape with nothing more than a long-suffering sigh. "Any preferences, Harry?"

"No, anything's fine."

She let him go and stood. "You two, behave."

She left.

There was silence for a long moment.

"So, that truce you agreed to ended with the Dark Lord's life, I presume?"

"Until the end of the battle, and I guess for us it did end when he died. And that everything after that was up to us."

"And the 'everything after that' bit was explicitly stated?"

"Yes."

A sound of shifting weight and fabric.

"And, Professor?"

Another grunt.

"I wasn't told to tell you this, but I think I want to tell you anyway."

Another shifting. "Potter, take whatever time you need to figure out what you've experienced and what it means. There's no need to rush."

"I think I need to. There are some other things I'll wait for. Actually, I'm probably going to need your help making sense of some of it."

"Good. I'm tired of not having all the information. I still don't know what you three were after this year."

"That's one of the things I need to think about. It had to do with making Voldemort mortal, and it was boredom spiked with a course in ways to nearly die. For instance, I have now managed to Apparate while jumping out a window."

"Don't do that again." Snape spoke far too fast, and Harry as certain that there was fear in his voice.

"If Hermione and I hadn't been about to die, I wouldn't have."

More shifting. "And the thing you needed to tell me?"

He needed to tell Snape, and he had the distinct feeling she would have wanted Harry to tell Snape even though she hadn't said to.

"It doesn't hurt."

"What?"

"The Killing Curse. It doesn't hurt." Which was partly a fib, because he wasn't counting the feeling of having been kicked that he had experienced afterwards, but he thought that was more from being thrown to the ground than from the actual curse.

"Why would... you... God." The last word was a restrained sob. "Why...?"

Harry was quiet for a moment. "Long story." There was a noise of shoes on stone. "Someone's coming."

"All Madam Pomfrey wants you to have right now is porridge. Something about letting you and Hermione get used to normal food again." He heard Mrs. Weasley set a tray down on a bedside table.

"That's standard, Molly." Snape's voice was even again. "It's counterproductive if we let them eat themselves sick. Especially when Potter's this weak."

"But he's so thin..."

"Potter, is there the slightest chance you can feed yourself right now?" The voice was as firm as it had ever been.

"No."

"Then chewing is a risk, Molly. He'll be recovered soon, but not just yet."

It was oddly enough not demeaning or embarrassing to have Mrs. Weasley help prop him up on the pillow and offer the bowl of food spoonful by spoonful.

"Was that enough?" She put her hand on his forehead. "I could go get more."

He opened his eyes and tried to smile a little. "It's fine." He closed his eyes again, exhausted. "Think I need to sleep," he mumbled.

"That is to be expected, Potter. But this is as bad as it should get. If you feel worse, tell someone."

"I will," he barely managed to whisper.


	11. The Discussion

Someone tucked a blanket over his shoulder.

"Huh?"

"Shh. I did not mean to wake you."

"Professor?"

"Indeed."

Being 'tucked in' by Professor Snape was not something Harry would have believed could ever happen, at least not until recently.

"It was finally decided that I was healed enough to join the others in keeping an eye on you." There was something in his voice that seemed to suggest that Snape thought there was little reason to either expect something to go wrong or to anticipate Harry trying to sneak off somewhere.

"Anyone else here?"

"No.” There was  pause. “I thought you had decided to trust me."

Harry swallowed. "I'm sorry. I should have waited until after I knew you could react in private."

Silence for a moment, then a warm hand on his shoulder just under the edge of the blanket. "You were in no condition to make that your concern." The hand withdrew. "In fact, it should not have been your concern at all. What happened?"

There was no way either of them was up to this yet. "You stayed..."

"That... What... You weren't thinking like that. You needed to get those words out, whether or not it mattered so greatly to me. What made it so urgent, Potter?"

"Professor... I..." He felt like he was being questioned about the old potions textbook again.

"Damn." Snape's hand was on his shoulder again. "When you're ready. We're both emotionally reactive right now."

"I had to tell you. What do you remember me saying that night, about what happened?"

"That you had made it to the place between life and death, and been told you needed to come back to the living. And that you had promised truce with me until the battle was done, and been told why I have been doing the things I have done." The hand tightened on his shoulder. "You never said who you met there."

Harry wanted to just curl up and disappear.

"Potter?"

He just couldn't do this.

"Harry?" There was concern in Snape's voice.

It was odd to hear that kind of concern in Snape's voice.

Then again, with Voldemort gone he could risk it.

"I had to come back." It was all Harry could choke out. "I had to..."

The thing he wanted most at the moment was something not even the Resurrection Stone, if it existed, could give him.

"And you have already saved a very many other people's lives by doing so," Snape whispered, very close. "A great many." The hand left again.

It was worth it, of course it had been worth it.

How could it have not been worth it?

Arms gently around him. "Including mine. I hope you will accept my thanks for that, and for the bit of peace of mind I have no right to claim."

Harry tried to nod against Snape's shoulder, clutching at the center of the older wizard's shirt. "Had  to. Horrible things were going to happen if I didn't."

"What sort of things?"

"You and Voldemort were going to kill each other, but he wasn't going to be mortal when it happened. And he was going to be resurrected faster this time."

"I was going to be able to kill him?" Snape seemed surprised at the thought.

"Not permanently."

"Doesn't matter."

"You would have died."

"Doesn't matter either. I could have..." he trailed off, voice rising in pitch slightly.

"And people would have died for it."

"I..."

He wanted to die.

Harry had wanted to wait to say what had happened. He understood now that he couldn't wait.

Professor Snape had built his entire adult life around avenging Lily Evans Potter, it suddenly seemed, that and defending her son. Voldemort and Wormtail were both gone now, and Professor Trelawney's role had been so passive that she still didn't know what she had caused: that left only one in the land of the living who had been actively involved in what had happened that October night.

If Harry had died, there wouldn't have been a clear reason for Snape to try for his own survival in the battle anymore. As it was, Harry was an adult wizard, almost of age by Muggle standards as well, and it was only a matter of time, maybe as long as it took Harry to leave the Hospital Wing, before it really would be time for everyone to let Harry fend for himself.

There was no time to wait, not as long as Harry had wished.

He tightened his grip on the shirt, hoping Snape would not notice.  "Professor?"

"What?" The word was a pained growl.

"Get this in your head: She. Did. Not. Want. You. To. Die." Harry almost didn't manage to say all the words. As it was, it was only the strangled sobbing coming from Professor Snape that let him know he hadn't mangled the words past comprehension.

“It wasn't in those words, but...” he choked for a moment. He let Snape's shirt go. “It wasn't a hidden thing.”

Snape shook his head, hair wild. “Can't be,” he managed to growl.

“What reason would I have to lie about it? And what reason would I have had to trust you other than her telling me I should?”

Snape shook his head again.

“She told me that what you did the night of the battle was not Professor Dumbledore's plan.” Harry loosened his grip a great deal. “Said you couldn't do what he'd wanted you to do, that you couldn't bring yourself to be the one to tell me.”

“Potter...” It was a mix of sob and growl.

“Who else would I have trusted if I was told that?”

Snape didn't answer.

After a few minutes, he stopped looking so much like a cornered wild animal and seemed to calm down.

“She... she really...”

“She said you were the closest she ever had to a brother, even with everything you've ever done, and that if... if a lot of things hadn't happened you would have been like an honorary uncle to me.” Harry took a deep breath. “And that you were sort of acting like one. Sirius was trying to keep me happy. You were more worried about...”

“...keeping you alive.”

Harry nodded. “The Occlumency lessons were never going to work – and according to her, Dumbledore knew they probably wouldn't. But there were a lot of other times I should have listened better.”

“Potter?” Snape suddenly sounded entirely like his old self.

“Yes, sir?”

“I am never letting you forget you said that.”

Harry felt himself start smiling – he couldn't stop it. “I know you won't.”


End file.
